1 I... Died?
Rowen Lahey woke up on the floor, which was very strange, because he was sure he slept in his bed. And, why was it so clear?
With a confused head, he tried to focus his vision and stop seeing everything blurry, but it was difficult. He still felt sleepy.
Struggling to sit up, he was quite confused.
Hm… Something wasn't right… Rowen frowned when he finally got a clear view.
A blue sky with white clouds. People around and many were rising from the ground and feeling confused by this situation.
Something was definitely wrong with this scene.
More willing, Rowen got up with a quick breath.
"What the hell?" He asked looking around.
He was surrounded by strangers who clearly had no idea what was going on.
All were on a kind of circular platform over 500 meters long and there were Greek design pillars around it making the place look like an ancient Greek Temple.
There were over 400 people. So far he has not seen anyone younger than him, 16 years old, or older than 70 years.
"What is going on?"
"Where am I?"
"If this is another prank, I'll kill that idiot!"
I want my mother. But of course he didn't say that out loud, that would be shameful.
At that moment, the whole "temple" was surrounded by a shield of light almost golden and transparent. In the air, in the very center, a face wearing a white mask of what appeared to be a kind of demon bird with a huge beak appeared.
At the top of his head was a white top hat and he could swear whoever he was was wearing a white penguin suit and possibly a cane.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, I am honored to welcome you to the Tyghon world. First of all, let me say that you are dead in your old world. All of you were taken from your worlds an instant before your death and teleported into this world through the Temple of Dimensional Awakening." The voice of that mysterious person was calm and confident as a host should be.
Rowen was at least speechless. What do you mean "dead"? The last thing he remembers is going to bed before he wakes up in this place.
Someone asked the same question and it seems that this person also went to sleep and woke up here.
"I understand that this may seem confusing and all, but I assure you it is the truth. Some of you can even confirm that you were facing imminent death and soon after you woke up here, right?" Rowen looked around and noticed that some people seemed to collaborate with this story, if their faces and expressions were any clue. "I don't know how each of you was about to die, but I assure you, all of you here are why you would definitely die within just a second of your real world."
Rowen swallowed hard. He didn't want to, but somehow believed in that mysterious person.
"That said, I think you should be grateful to have a new chance at life, even if it is not in your old world."
Rowen wasn't so sure about that and he suspected he wasn't the only one.
Ignoring everyone's discomfort, the host continued:
"But let's not stop at this point. We have more important things to deal with. As I said, you are in another world. To be precise, another universe. This was only possible because we used the Dimensional Awakening Temple which, at a generous cost, allows us to break the barrier between the universes and randomly summon people who were about to die. Of course we didn't do it for the goodness of our hearts. This action was in conjunction with some powers of this world."
Rowen frowned. What do they want in return?
The masked hologram explained. Putting it in simple words, it is as follows:
They are in a world where all living beings have a leveling system as in a game. This system is only awakened after reaching a certain age.
They, who are from another world, do not have this system, but it can easily be bypassed through the Temple of Dimensional Awakening.
The Temple of Dimensional Awakening is able to summon beings from another universe who are about to die and awaken them and thereby granting them a leveling system.
The reason people in this world use the altar is because of what they can receive in return.
The Temple of Dimensional Awakening is located within a dungeon. This dungeon can only be accessed from the altar. Imagine a mountain with numerous paths to floors and the altar is on the top floor underground and the exit is at the top of the mountain and only people inside the mountain can cross the force field.
Therefore, only beings summoned by the altar can enter the dungeon.
This dungeon, Myriad of Infinite Desires, is more special than many out there.
It has several floors and many different paths and its natural resources are endless and much desired.
There are beings who are willing to pay their entire fortune to get certain items from this dungeon.
And that's where the summoners come in.
In this world there are the so-called "Soul Contract", where the interested parties sign these contracts and those who do not fulfill their parts can end up falling dead no more and no less.
The host introduced them to two choices: Join an organization, or pay for buying items from this dungeon and giving them away for free to the people responsible for bringing them into this world.
In any case, they should sign the contract.
Of course they can also choose not to sign the contract, but then they will not be awakened and will have to survive a world full of magic beasts and monsters alone and without the power to protect themselves, and there is a high chance of being hunted if they can get out. alive from this dungeon.
They should make their decisions as soon as possible, because the price to keep the altar working to protect them is too great.
And the host did not fail to mention that outside the dungeon there is an altar that allows them to make offerings to activate that altar they were on.
After hearing the explanation, Rowen considered what to decide. A yellowed sheet of parchment materialized before him and floated there containing the same information. It was the so-called Soul Contract.
He read the contract and found that it was the same thing the host said and that non-compliance would result in his death.
He focused his attention on the 3 options he had.
The 3 options had their good and bad points.
1: Join an organization.
2: Purchase items to trade for this opportunity.
3: Dying by not choosing either of the previous two.
Rowen may not be an expert at this sort of thing, but he knew that without a leveling system that allowed him to transcend human boundaries and gain special abilities, he was as good as dead in this new world. So the third option was out of the question.
He took a few minutes, but eventually chose the second option: buy items and exchange 80% of what he owns when he leaves the dungeon.
As he was about to sign, something caught his eye.
Someone walked past him and bumped into him, but didn't even turn and continued walking toward the center of the platform.
Rowen gritted his teeth and was about to open your mouth to complain when he noticed something.
Now that there were no people in front of him, he was able to see a kind of offering altar in the center of the platform and the person who bumped into him was walking towards the altar and beside him, his contract sheet was following him in full. air.
He looked around and saw that he and that person were practically the only ones who had not yet signed the contract. All who signed had their contracts broken into fragments of light that were soon absorbed into their bodies.
Soon after, the force field over the temple would glow with a divine gold and the person who just signed the contract would glow gold for a few seconds and after that would be saying:
"Open status."
Some were even starting to cross the force field, and many had already formed groups.
As more and more people were slowly leaving the temple and entering the forest, Rowen focused his attention on the young boy who was to be about his age. Maybe he was about two years older.
He walked to the altar in the center of the temple when no one else was around and seemed to be completely ignoring the contract by his side.
Rowen walked slowly as he followed him and saw the 18-year-old boy extend his palm over the altar and then Rowen saw a sphere of golden light appear over the altar. A few minutes later, Rowen noticed the forcefield glow again and the boy's body glow indicating that he had awakened.
But how was this possible when your contract remained by your side without being signed?
Rowen Lahey pretended not to see the boy using the altar to wake up. At that moment, there was only him and that boy in the temple.
All the others had already left.
When the boy turned, Rowen pretended to be reading the contract seriously, but he knew he was not fooling anyone, but he would not surrender anyway.
At the same time, he was thinking of several things.
That boy, how did he know about the altar?
Why was he so calm and seemed to know how to do it?
Numerous theories crossed his head, but only two persisted.
Or was he somehow related to the natives of this world.
Or he traveled back in time.
Reading some time travel novels makes people smarter about you.
If Rowen had to bet, he would bet on the second option, because, in a way, some things were similar to some novels he was lucky enough to read.
And if so, then signing the contract may not be a very good idea.
He turned and looked at the altar.
The boy was standing by the altar staring at him. The fact that he shivered as if he'd seen a ghost and nearly soiled his pants didn't need to be known to anyone else.
